So Lily went in her first short track bike race last night, she had an AWESOME TIME. (I went in my first one too, i also had an awesome time,but i’m a grown up about these things and must be calm… BLEEEEE I WENT IN A RACE)…
Anyways, it’s 110% clear that she needs gears to get her little patooty up some of the grassyhills. She’s practically standing on her current gear and the bike won’t roll
So I got looking around. These guys are out of my price range for a 6 year old but HOLY COW, check em out
I know Norco used to do a trade up program through their dealers, which made keeping your kid on a quality and properly sized bike still available. I wonder if they still do it.
My son is on his second season with the 20" wheeled MEC bike. It’s a great little bike overall. The fork is a little stiff and I’ve been meaning to pull it apart to have a look to see if there’s any way to soften it up but on the other hand he’s getting bigger/heavier so it is starting to compress more. Parts spec is decent and most important- he likes it so he wants to ride. Whoever assembled it routed the derailleur cable incorrectly so it was binding a little but that was a quick and easy fix.
I considered going with a rigid fork for the weight savings but ultimately figured he’d dig having some suspension even if it’s not the plushest thing ever.
For trail riding I’d highly recommend a tire swap. The stock tires are fine for street and gravel but aren’t an aggressive enough tread for much else. There are pretty limited choices, I ended up getting him a pair of Kenda ‘smoke’ or something like that from ebay.
Yeah, there are a bunch of bikes out there kona have the equivalent to the hotrock/opus/mec … If money is no object (yeah right) the Lil Shredder bikes have it going on… Hardtail and full suspension designs.
Yeah, money is totally an object Even more so for a 20 inch bike. I don’ twant CT but we’re also not going bespoke. Chances are almost 100% it will be a Louis Garneau. About $220 ish.
When she gets to 24inch wheel size, I’ll get a bit pickier. Isla continues to be wicked impressive to me tho. Its like Surly for kids.